Werewolf (Ship)
The workhorse of the Vodoni naval forces, the Werewolf is a powerful heavy warship, well suited to the standard tactics used by the Vodoni. The Werewolf, designed and built for the Vodoni by the enslaved Zalani race, appears as a huge, red-winged wolf with open jaws to rip, tear, and grab a hull when ramming. The Werewolf is heavily armoured, and is designed to close with enemy ships as quickly as possible so that targets can be rammed and boarded. During the fall of the Vodoni empire, many Werewolves were captured by the factions involved in the empire's defeat. The elves wanted nothing to do with these ships, since they do not fit with their sense of aesthetics. The dwarves, as ever, prefer their own ships of stone, while the beholders would not deign to use the ships of an inferior race. Few of the treacherous neogi involved in the war survived, and it is believed that those who fled did not capture any Vodoni ships. While the illithids kept a few captured Vodoni craft, the vast majority of those captured during the war made their way into the hands of various human factions, either because the humans captured the ships, or because they were captured by another faction which then sold the ships to the humans. Notably, the human empire of Tyrannous has reverse-engineered the Werewolf with the help of several 'liberated' Zalani shipwrights, and has begun to produce new Werewolves for its own navy. Crew When used by the Vodoni, a Werewolf would carry 2-3 breeders (human dual-classed warrior/transmuters) who served as the captain, first officer, and navigator. All breeders on a Vodoni ship also serve as helmsmen and battle-mages as required. Between 20 and 30 normal human sailors would be carried to handle the ship and man the weapons (the typical Vodoni tactic called for the weapons to be loaded before coming within firing distance of the enemy, and then manned by a single sailor who would fire the weapon once before ramming - reloading was considered unneccessary), as well as 20 Vodoni enforcer marines. The enforcers were the true weapon of the Werewolf, and would pour down the boarding ramp in battle, slaughtering the enemy crew. When a Werewolf is operated by non-Vodoni the crew organization will vary greatly. As a general rule, however, the vast majority of Werewolves are operated as military ships, and so they will usually carry between 50 and 60 men, including a significant number of marines. Ship Uses Warship: Most Werewolves are used as combat vessels. This is the role that they were intended to fill for the Vodoni, and most captured ships are used in this fashion. Reaver: While the Vodoni empire has fallen, a large number of Werewolves remain in Vodoni hands. Without any sort of a command structure for these ships to fit themselves into, most Vodoni-controlled Werewolves have become independant reavers, acting on the sole authority of the commanding breeders. Sich ships are highly dangerous, attacking indiscriminately, and taking whatever they want. As no new breeders are trained, and no new enforcers are created, these Vodoni-operated reavers will eventually vanish from the spaceways as attrition takes its toll. Cargo Galley: The Vodoni used a significant number of Werewolves as cargo galleys. These ships supported Vodoni forces throughout their empire, and would usually be crewed by a small number of breeders and enforcers controlling a slave crew. After the fall of the Vodoni empire these poorly-manned ships were easily captured, and most have since been converted to warships by those who captured them. Other Configurations Warwolf: Some captured Werewolves have been converted by human navies into the version which has become known as the Warwolf. Warwolves add extra armour plated, and thicken the hull. This gives the ship AR 2, but reduces MC to E, and cargo space is reduced to 24 tons. The catapults on a Warwolf are replaced with more heavy ballistas, and often a fourth heavy ballista is mounted on the hull just aft of where the ship's head meets the wings, further reducing cargo space to 20 tons. Warwolves are used in fleet actions as heavy attack ships, and the powerful but clumsy vessels are intended to be supported by more nimble ships.